Rolling Sharks trounce Tigers

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Sunday

Nov 29, 2009 at 3:03 AM

The team that couldn’t beat anyone has turned into the team that no one can beat.

The Sharks won their fifth in a row last night, beating the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 4-1. The five-game streak has come directly following a seven-game losing streak, and is tied for the second-longest in franchise history.

Worcester won seven straight from March 16-31, 2007.

“That’s just hockey” said Andrew Desjardins, who scored the Sharks’ first goal last night. “When you’re down, it seems like it’s almost impossible to get back up. Any little thing that goes wrong, it just increases the negativity, not like when things are going right and you figure, ‘Hey — that won’t matter’ and just keep on playing.”

The victory allowed the Sharks to move into a third-place tie with Lowell in the Atlantic Division. Both teams are just one point behind second-place Hartford, and four points out of first place.

Ryan Vesce was 1-2-3 for Worcester, Logan Couture 1-1-2, Danny Groulx 1-1-2 and defenseman Nick Petrecki was plus-3. Tyler Haskins had the only Bridgeport goal, scoring short-handed at 10:40 of the third period to make it 2-1.

Groulx got it back just 39 seconds later, though, and the hole was too big for the Sound Tigers to dig out of.

“That was a huge goal,” Sharks coach Roy Sommer said. “They made it 2-1, and there’s eight or nine minutes left, then we take right away from them. That was the game right there.”

Alex Stalock has been in net for the entire winning streak and was sensational again last night, stopping breakaways, challenging shooters and playing the puck well. He had several key stops, but the one that impressed Sommer the most was the one Stalock made on Justin DiBenedetto at 15:11 of the second period.

The Sharks turned the puck over in their own zone, and DiBenedetto was all alone, storming to the Worcester net. Stalock came out between the circles to cut down the angle, and DiBenedetto had nowhere to shoot the puck except into the goalie’s equipment.

“When a goaltender comes that far out at the shooter,” Sommer said, “that’s a goalie who’s playing with a lot of confidence in himself.”

During the winning streak, Stalock’s goals against average is 1.60, and he has stopped 137 of 145 shots.

Desjardins made it 1-0 at 6:06 of the first period, tipping in a Groulx slap shot. Couture converted a pass from Vesce at 6:00 of the second to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead, then Haskins made it interesting with his short-handed goal.

Groulx’s backbreaker was a vicious 45-foot slapper from the left side, then Vesce closed it out with an empty-netter with 1:04 to play.

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